This invention relates to the processing of strands and, more particularly, to the processing of a plurality of strands advancing away from a continuously operating source.
The term strand as used herein is intended to include either a single filament, a gathered plurality, or warp of such filaments as well as yarns, webs, and the like produced from the filaments.
It is well known in the textile industry that a spinning process, wherein filament-forming material is extruded from a spinneret, is normally not stopped when a defective condition arises during the processing steps which follow extrusion. Such defects are usually encountered in the form of roll wraps, breaks, or similar defects which appear in the downstream processing of the strands. Rather than interrupt the spinning process, one practice has been to employ sensing devices which function to detect the various defects and to actuate cut down equipment thereby interrupting the downstream delivery from a given source. One such apparatus is shown by Edwards in U.S. Pat. No. 3,090,268 wherein running strands are swept to a cutter, then cut and introduced to an aspirator through which the cut strands are withdrawn.
The cutter is a vital component of the system and while the cutting devices of the prior art have proven satisfactory for cutting a few strands at one time, improvement is needed to reliably handle large warps of up to 40 ends.